Latest items for ISSA-PRACTICE-1

"Some prostitutes and domestic workers practiced infanticide, mainly due to lack of access to and knowledge about contraception. Authorities prosecuted at least two infanticide cases during the year" (page 24).

"'There is a clear need for States to effectively implement the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994 and take appropriate measures to promote the value of the girl child,' the report notes further" (para 11). "The report also shows that economic prosperity does not necessarily translate into social progressiveness, as evident from the fact that states like Punjab and Haryana, despite having a higher per capita income, have a worse sex ratio than Bihar, for example" (para 16).

"Kayan, Karenni/Kayah and Kayaw: According to their custom, daughters and wives do not have the right to own land. Women can only own land when their husband has passed away. However, if the son is already an adult, the land will automatically go to the son. Although there is no written law, the custom has been practiced for many generations. Source: Kayan Women’s Organisation (KYWO). Kuki: According to the Kuki people’s custom and traditions, Kuki women have never had the right to own land or property at any point in time. When the husband passes away, title is passed to his oldest son, the oldest brother of the husband or...more

"Other major human rights problems included: infanticide" (page 1). "Infanticide, usually due to poverty or embarrassment, continued to be a problem. Domestic workers and rural women working in cities sometimes killed their newborns if they could not care for them. Others, married to men working outside the country, killed their infants out of shame. According to the African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights, infanticide also occurred when a woman became pregnant with the child of a man from a prohibited occupational caste. In some cases the families of the women shamed them into killing their babies" (page 18).

"In June, the Guardian reported that the Jiangxi province ordered that women seeking an abortion after 14 weeks must get 'signed approval from three medical professionals' before they can access the procedure. The newspaper reported that this is to help prevent selective-sex abortions (an illegal procedure), but that women are still concerned. 'What is the purpose and basis of this policy? The reproductive rights of women in this country seem to be a joke, a Weibo user wrote, according to the Guardian" (para 4-5).

"Academics often talk about between 30 and 60 million “missing girls” in China, apparently killed in the womb or just after birth, thanks to a combination of preference for sons and the country’s decades under a repressive one-child policy. Now researchers in the United States and China think they might have found many — or even most — of them, and argue they might not have been killed after all." (para. 1 - 2). "China finally abandoned the one-child policy this year after more than three decades, allowing everyone to have two children. But there is still widespread concern about the lagged effects of a seriously skewed gender ratio on...more

"Hundreds of dead newborn girls have been found dumped in garbage piles in Pakistan over the last year amid a cultural preference for boys, it has emerged. A total of 345 babies have been found dead in refuse heaps in Karachi, Pakistan's most populous city, since the beginning of 2017 with 99 per cent of them found to be girls, according to local reports" (para. 1 - 2). "According to The News International, activists from the Chhipa Welfare Foundation said it had come across 93 such cases in Karachi with 70 in 2017 and 23 this year" (para. 5). "However, Anwar Kazmi, from Karachi's Edhi Center charity, said the majority...more

"The police did not give a price, but local news reports said the mothers were given 300,000 rupees ($4,380) for a boy and 100,000 rupees ($1,460) for a girl" (para 8). This price differnece indicates a stronger value being placed on sons rather than daughters (AA-CODER COMMENT).

"The Committee is concerned about the persistence of patriarchal attitudes and deep-rooted gender stereotypes regarding the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the family and in society that overemphasize the subordinate and caring roles of women and are reflected in practices such as son preference" (5). "...the Committee notes with concern:The imbalance of the sex ratio at birth arising from a strong preference for male offspring, which results in the sex selection of foetuses..." (10).

"The imbalanced ratio of newborn boys to girls continued to increase, particularly in some wealthier areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The government acknowledged the problem (reduction of the ratio was a highlighted goal in the National Program on Gender Equality) and continued to take steps to address it" (42).

“[There is the] prevalence of son preference in families and within society and the attribution of a subordinate status to women vis-à-vis men, as reflected and perpetuated by a relatively high number of sex-selective abortions” (4)

"The Committee is concerned that women in detention live in deplorable conditions and are subjected to violence, including rape, by guards and/or male detainees, and that such cases are not adequately investigated and prosecuted. The Committee also is concerned that most women in detention have been convicted of infanticide. The Committee urges the State party to ensure that living conditions in detention centres are compliant with the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules); that women are under the supervision of female guards and that gender-sensitive complaint mechanisms are available to them; and that all cases of violence against...more

"Gallup surveyed Americans 10 times from 1941 to 2011, and their answers remained virtually unchanged: If they could have one child, 40 percent would prefer a boy and 28 percent a girl (the rest showed no preference). While having a daughter versus a son used to make American parents more likely to keep having children, theoretically to try for a son, now the opposite is true: Having a daughter makes it less likely that they keep having children. Some data from adoptions and fertility procedures that allow parents to choose the sex of their baby also shows a preference, to varying degrees, for girls. First- and second-generation American immigrants, the...more

"In India, sex-selective abortions and female infanticide, due to a preference for male babies, has created one of the most severe gender imbalances in the world" (para 6). "It's not just about sex selection and foeticide. It's about infanticide; it's about lack of value for girls," says Muttreja, a government adviser on family issues. It's a continuum where girls are not valued before they're born, but the girls are not valued or treated well even after they're born" (para 25-26).

According to Table 1, China's sex ratio was 102.61 male births per 100 female births. In 1990, the sex ratio was 111.14 male births per 100 female births. In 2000, the sex ratio was 116.86 male births per 100 female births. In 2010 the sex ratio was 117.94 male births per 100 female births. In 2015 the sex ratio was 113.51 male births per 100 female births (para 1). "According to the WHO, if a country's population sex ratio does not equalize or rather exceeds the 105 threshold, it usually means societies with a dominating preference for male children are intervening in nature and reducing the number of born girl...more

"The policy which was enforced on parents for more than three decades has caused a big gender imbalance because families preferred a son to a daughter. This means China has many more men than women" (para 19).

"Therefore, giving birth to a baby boy is highly expected in rural families, pressuring women, and meaning daughters are often neglected. Challenging these beliefs is tremendously difficult due to vested interests and long-practised customs – but local grassroots women’s organizations are taking on this challenge"(para 4)

"'Well, daughters are expensive. If she goes to school, we have to buy her books. So having a daughter is a problem. If she goes to her husband’s house, there are no issues with expenses. Now girls have the same rights as boys. But I could have gotten rid of the educational expenses if I could have married her off'" (1). This is a quote from the mother of a young girl at 16:23. Her words point to a culture that values male offspring more than female offspring (TPJ - CODER COMMENT).

"A medical board in the northern Indian state of Haryana said on Monday that the girl’s life had not been endangered by the pregnancy, a necessary condition under the law for most abortions conducted after 20 weeks. India enacted that law in part to discourage the widespread termination of female fetuses in a part of the world where boys are preferred" (para 3).

"Researchers have blamed the practice of giving dowries for the abortion of girls. 'Female foeticide is rare among Muslims, but, it is rampant in Hindu society, especially in urban areas,' said journalist and activist Santosh Prasad. 'If a powerful DRA-like [Dahez Roko Abhiyan, or stop dowry campaign] campaign became widespread, I am sure the rate of foeticide will drop'" (p 20-21)

"Some analysts have linked the shared trend for sex-selective abortions in Armenia and Azerbaijan to their violent territorial dispute since 1994 over the Nagorny Karabakh region, suggesting it has promoted a sense of insecurity and a desire for male defenders" (para 12).

"Ani Kirakosyan says she is afraid of getting pregnant because if the ultrasound shows the foetus is a girl she will have to consider having an abortion. In ex-Soviet Armenia — where families traditionally prefer sons — women are often pressured to have sex-selective abortions to get rid of girl babies. 'Relatives were consoling me when I gave birth to my first daughter,' said Kirakosyan, a 27-year-old resident of the Armenian capital, Yerevan. But when my second daughter was born, my mother-in-law told me that there must be no more girls, that I must finally bear my husband a son. The majority-Christian Caucasus country of some three million has the...more

"Civil society advocates expressed concern that 17 women convicted of homicide for the deaths of their infants were wrongly incarcerated. Amnesty International and the UN Development Program claimed the women had miscarriages, while the Legal Medicine Institute argued that the women committed infanticide" (18).

"Sex ratios at birth have also been found to vary markedly by religious group. While some religious groups in India exhibit high sex ratios, such as Sikhs (130) and Jains (118), others have sex ratios closer to normal, such as Muslims (107) and Christians (104). Hindus and Buddhists fall in between, at 111 and 108 boys per 100 females, respectively" (para 11). "Reflecting the strong preference for sons, the raising of a daughter, according to one Indian saying, is like watering the neighbor’s garden" (para 14).

"There are perceptions that men are better off than women are as far as the ability to work is concerned and only men can look after their parents. That is why girls are subject to discrimination from their births. In addition, son preferences in the traditional Bangladeshi society create gender discrimination. In the case of employment, the employers in Bangladesh still tend to employ men first rather than women" (7).